Anyway, on to the big observation from Genesis 31-50
A God Who Warns (Genesis 31:24)
Today's reading continues the story of Jacob and Laban. Laban was the father-in-law who deceitfully "stuck" Jacob with Leah as a wife when Jacob wanted to marry Rachel instead. Laban was also the father-in-law who, when Jacob worked for him as a shepherd, tried to cheat Jacob out of his fair wages. Laban was, in other words, a real winner of a guy.
In Genesis 31, Jacob decides to take his two wives (Laban's daughters) and all his family and possessions and return to the land of Canaan, where his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham had lived. They sneak off in the middle of the night, worried that Laban might try to force them to stay. Once Laban realizes that they are gone, he gets angry and decides to go after them with force.
This is where the story gets interesting. As Laban and his army near Jacob's encampment with their bad intentions, God intervenes. In 31:24 - God tells Laban, "I'm warning you - leave Jacob alone" (NLT). No threats of destruction or anything like that, just "leave him alone."
God didn't have to warn Laban. In fact, given Laban's history of deceitfulness, it would have been at least somewhat justified to let Laban attack Jacob and get soundly defeated. But God doesn't do that - in warning Laban, God shows yet again that He is a God of mercy. God would rather avoid unnecessary bloodshed and violence, and so he warns Laban to back off - and Laban does.
I am only two days into this project and already my assumptions about the Bible are being rattled. As I mentioned yesterday, the militant God of the Old Testament doesn't seem quite as militant as I read through it this time. Perhaps I was just looking in the wrong places before, but it seems more and more clear to me that God is love - Old Testament and New Testament.
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